“Handshake across the Pacific” through the lens of elite Indian newspapers: News coverage of the 2023 Xi-Biden summit

This paper examines Indian media’s framing of the nation’s strategic posture vis-à-vis China and the US, in the context of the 2023 Xi-Biden summit held on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference in San Francisco. News and editorial contents surrounding the visit and published in two of the country’s leading newspapers— The Hindu and The Times of India —were analyzed for salience of frames and sourcing methods in use. Analysis of summit-focused articles revealed these dominant frames: a destabilized world, a web of fault lines, responsible competition, and sustained dialogue, with India as a regional stabilizer. The significance of this research lies in its potential to shed light on how the news media of an emerging power portrays the country’s strategic posture relative to major global powers.